I THINK Blues’ fans are expecting more than the team can deliver but I still reckon they will be back in the Premier League.

Like Villa, they are going through a blip and Alex McLeish is struggling a little bit at St Andrew’s at the moment. They have fallen six points behind Wolves at the top of the table now which is a problem for them.

Mick McCarthy is a big, strong sort of character. He’s going to stride ahead now and it will be a race for who comes second to Wolves and I think that will be Blues.

I would love to see them back in the Premier League, it is where they belong and it would be a six-pointer for Villa – only joking! I love to see two teams playing each other in a big city.

When I was at Manchester United, when Manchester City were down I used to go and support them because I wanted them to come up. There are no games like local derbies.

I used to love the atmosphere. I know it wasn’t a derby match, but the greatest feeling I ever had was when there were guns going off in the crowd when I played in Turkey.

I used to think that was exciting. Some people went under because of the pressure but I loved it. I loved the atmosphere.

I remember playing against Birmingham, we scraped through a couple of times. I remember Paul Peschisolido. He was a good player who caused a lot of problems on the pitch.

The thing about derbies is that when you come off the football pitch and go into the players’ lounge the rivalry stops.